


useless

by orphan_account



Category: Casualty (TV)
Genre: Arguing, First Kiss, M/M, Non-Graphic Violence, this is a v short one-shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-10
Updated: 2016-03-10
Packaged: 2018-05-25 23:47:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,262
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6215023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After a long day, Dylan says something he didn't mean to Lofty, but he figured he'd just apologise the next day. It'd all be alright, if it weren't for the fact Lofty might not make it to tomorrow.</p><p>Set after Lofty gets promoted but before all the crap goes down.</p>
            </blockquote>





	useless

**Author's Note:**

> lmao this is one of the worst things i've ever written but welp deal with it this ship has so few fics i figured it'd be ok
> 
> also unbeta'd and i'm very bad at editing my own work so if you see any mistakes tell me and I'll sort it

“Useless,” Dylan muttered under his breath as Lofty handed him the wrong implement following a double shift. He hadn’t called the nurse anything like that in weeks, following their growing friendship and their drunken conversation in which Lofty had revealed a great deal of his insecurities – including disappointing people and being hopeless – following several pints and five shots of tequila. Any other day, it wouldn’t have happened, nor gone as far as it did, but following a double shift himself, a phone call from his father and one of the most incessantly annoying patients he had ever treated, he wasn’t in the mood and partially running on autopilot.

“Sorry?” Lofty asked, looking up with disbelief.

He stayed silent for a beat. “Nothing.”

“No, no, that was definitely something,” Lofty replied, handing him a syringe.

“Fine,” he replied. “I just would’ve thought with your new roles that you would be less incompetent.” Lofty looked down, expression clouding over with a look Dylan hadn’t put on his face for months. He quickly squashed the guilt that arose with some admittedly misplaced pride. “I honestly didn’t think you were such an idiot.” He immediately regretted it after he said it. His expression softened. “Ben, I-”

“No,” Lofty said, clearing his throat. “I get it,” he said, placing the tray of instruments down onto the bed of the thankfully unconscious patient after noting the procedure was finished. He left abruptly.

Dylan pinched his brow. A moment later he followed Lofty out the door, looking up and down the corridor to no avail.

*

Dylan stood in the break room, mulling over what he should do, coffee in hand. He checked the clock. Lofty would be off in ten minutes. The apology could wait for tomorrow. It’d be a better idea for them to leave it for a while and deal with it with a fresher mind.

His thoughts were interrupted by a series of shouts and clangs from the hall. He rushed out; eyes meeting the scene of a large, angry man shouting at a sobbing woman clutching a child to her chest. He headed over to the crowd building around them, joining some of the few nurses and doctors gathered beside the mother, watching two members of security held the other man back. They were short-staffed and over-crowded, the situation escalating quickly without anyone to intervene. Suddenly, the woman shoved the screaming child into the arms of the nearest person. Lofty. Dylan watched the man process everything in a matter of seconds, eyes darting between the baby and who Dylan presumed to be the father. As the man broke free from the hands holding him back and took a running start at him, Lofty rushed away, holding the child to his chest and leaving through the hospital doors into the car park. Dylan glanced around at the crowd. None of them were doing anything, probably waiting for someone else to do so. He followed Lofty quickly out the doors.

The night was cold, especially in just his shirt. Dylan eyed the car park desperately, unable to see anyone. He ran to the end of the building, catching sight of Lofty and the father.

“Oi!” he shouted.

It happened in slow motion. Both Lofty and the father turned to him, Lofty with an expression of desperation and the father with one of fury. The father turned back to face Lofty, and the nurse clutched the child closer to his chest. Then the man produced a knife from his waistband.

Dylan began to run forward.

The man shoved the blade between Lofty’s ribs and bolted.

“Ben,” Dylan said breathlessly as he reached him, rushing behind the younger man and breaking his fall, hands immediately flying to the knife still sticking out of his front and pulling him onto his lap. “Okay, okay, I’ve got you.”

“It’s cold,” Lofty remarked.

“I know,” he replied.

Lofty frowned. “No, I mean the baby,” he all but gasped out. “She needs to get inside,” he groaned as he shifted, taking one arm away to point towards Iain, exiting the hospital.

“Iain!” he called to the paramedic.

Iain turned, running towards them as soon as he saw them. “Lofty?” he asked, expression fraught with worry.

“Take the baby inside, get help,” Dylan told him firmly.

Iain nodded weakly, lifting the child from Lofty’s arms and dashing back to the hospital.

Dylan let out a shaky breath. “Okay,” he said to no one in particular as he tried to work out the extent of his friend’s injury. “Damn it,” he muttered under his breath, not able to think straight. “Alright Ben, I need you to stay with me.”

Lofty moved his hands over Dylan’s, clutching at the other man’s bloody hands. “Dylan,” he grimaced.

“You’re okay,” Dylan told him, not sure if he quite believed it himself. “Baby’s safe, you did good.”

“Not completely-” he coughed, “-useless.”

Dylan’s heart clenched. “No, you’re not useless. You could never be useless,” he said. “I’m sorry I said that.”

Lofty offered a small smile. “It’s okay.” Suddenly his expression changed as a wave of pain coursed through him. He coughed more, blood splattering onto his hand. He groaned.

The sound of footsteps across the car park filled their ears, and Iain reappeared. “Help’s coming mate, we’re freeing up a stretcher.”

“Haven’t even got a bloody stretcher,” Dylan muttered under his breath. Iain placed his hands over Lofty’s abdomen, pressing over the wound. Dylan slipped out one of his hands to brush Lofty’s hair out of his face.

As Iain pushed harder, Lofty let out a soft whimper.

“It’s alright Ben, come on,” Dylan sad softly, continuing to offer comfort.

The sound of the stretcher’s wheels across the tarmac echoed into the night. Several nurses Dylan couldn’t identify by name helped him lift his friend onto it and they returned into the building. As they carted Lofty off to surgery, Dylan was left to stare at the blood on his hands.

*

After several hours sitting at the front desk in silence, Dylan finally was allowed to see Lofty in his room. He entered quietly, taking the plastic seat beside the bed. “Look, I’d really appreciate you waking up soon.”

‘Soon’ for Lofty turned out to be nine hours later at three in the morning. Dylan was pulled sharply out of his light doze by Lofty quietly calling his name and asking if he was awake.

“Yeah,” he replied. “How are you feeling?”

“Like I’m not quite here,” Lofty replied quietly, causing Dylan to instinctively move closer to him to hear him properly. “You okay?” he frowned, eyes flashing to Dylan’s bloody shirt.

Dylan clenched his jaw. “Yeah, it’s uh, yours.”

“Oh,” Lofty replied. “Why are you still here?”

“What do you mean why am I still here? Where else would I be?” Dylan replied rather gruffly. He winced. “Sorry. It’s just I,” he paused for a moment, “I care about you,” he confirmed.

It hadn’t escaped Dylan’s notice that their faces were somewhat close together. He looked down at the other man’s parted lips and back to his eyes, before drawing Lofty’s head closer with a gentle hand. Their lips met and their eyes slid closed, and Dylan had never felt something so right. It was like the feeling in his heart when Lofty hugged him but amplified infinitely. They drew apart after a few moments, staring at each other in comfortable silence.

“Well,” Lofty said hoarsely after a few moments, “at least something good came of this,” he joked.

Dylan just drew him in for another kiss.


End file.
